Computer-aided design (CAD) programs are commonly used for designing electronic devices, such as integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). An example of such a CAD program is the Advanced Package Designer (APD) System available from Cadence Design Systems, Inc. The APD system provides an environment for the design and analysis of high-speed, high-density integrated circuit packages, multichip modules, and hybrids. This environment provides a framework for integrated circuit integration, physical layout, package modeling, interconnect routing, and analysis. The ALLEGRO® printed circuit board (PCB) layout system, which is also available from Cadence Design Systems, Inc., provides an interactive environment for designing complex and/or high-speed, multi-layer printed circuit boards
CAD programs commonly handle such tasks as circuit synthesis, simulation, layout generation, and layout verification. CAD programs generally include an interface for receiving various parameters for a desired design from a user and for outputting a representation of the resulting design to the user (e.g., as a schematic diagram and/or a netlist). In this manner, CAD programs aid a developer in visualizing an electronic design.
Many electronic designs have a plurality of layers (or a “layer stackup”). Each layer of an electronic design may be of a conducting material (e.g., metal) or a dielectric material, as examples. For instance, conductor layer(s) may be included in a printed circuit board's stackup for forming routing layer(s) in which traces for routing electrical signals (e.g., data) between components of the printed circuit board may be formed. Dielectric layer(s) may be used for electrically isolating different conductor layers from each other.
In defining an electronic design, a user generally interacts with a CAD's interface to specify various parameters of the design. For instance, a user generally specifies the number of layers to be included in the design, as well as various parameters associated with each layer, such as the layer type (e.g., the type of material to be used for the layer), the layer's thickness, etc. The user interface of a CAD, such as the ADP and ALLEGRO® systems mentioned above, generally provides drop-down menus through which a user may progress for selecting various parameters of a design, such as the corresponding type and thickness of a layer. Once a design is created in a CAD, the user may interact with the CAD's interface to change parameters of the design. For instance, suppose that after a design is created in a CAD the user desires to change the thickness and/or material type of various layers of the design. In this case, the user may interact with the CAD's interface to select a layer and proceed through pull-down menus to change the layer's corresponding material type and/or thickness. The user may then repeat this procedure for each layer desired to be modified.